Cell Phones

What I would love to find is a good item to search them down with. There are various detectors but sadly every one picks up on our radios as well. There is a monitoring program I have seen but it picks up on the radios as well. We have a very expensive metal detector that picks up on non-porous metals like copper, silver, gold you know the metals that a traditional metal detector dose not hit on. This has been used with minimal success. In fact the metal detector has not found a phone yet. Though inmates having to go by it has caused a couple to be thrown out windows or discarded on the ground and stepped on after the sim cards have been broken. I need an item or program that will let me either see everything and eliminate our radios and the admins cell phones. What would be ideal would be one that allows me to eliminate radios 1 by 1 based off of broadcast numbers and the same with the cell phones by number. That way any that are not our phones would pop up the number used and deration on a overlay of a top down map so we could isolate the area it is used in and times. This would be perfect then we could use other devices to route out the phone. If anyone has any suggestions so a proposal can be made and hopefully some success stories to go with it this would make my life easier. Because I am sorry persistence and old fashioned detective work is not eliminating them faster then the inmate population can convey replacements and more in. We have even started a team that is called in like a SRT whose sole purpose is to eliminate drugs and major contraband. This has had success as well our drug numbers are dropping. But this only fixes the symptoms. As long as they can speak freely and unmonitored we have contraband pipe lines opening as fast as we close them. We have had drug dogs used with sadly little success on both staff and inmate population. Because we are very efficient so are the inmates. As soon as the drugs hit the compound they are distributed efficiently and used almost immediately. The only thing we tend to find are the green dots used to buy them and owe lists. So I will get off my soap box and appreciate any information.

A few years ago we suspected there was a cell phone in a range. It took us two months to find it. We knew it was there because of the drugs coming into the jail, moves on the street, police info, etc… Never under estimate an inmate-very cunning

I recently transferred from a prison where I was part of the ISU team. One of the tactics that gave us great success in cell phone discoveries came with the use of Facebook. If one of you has access to Facebook, you would be surprised how many inmates use their real names on there. Bonus is once you find one, you find all their friends. Hint: You can put in the city that your prison is located in and search. Just look for the shirtless tatted dude in the cell.

Sadly sometimes it takes either a staff member getting hurt or some other major reality check for admin to get on board. This is why the rift between admin and security staff grows bigger every day. You can’t manage a prison worth a damn if you don’t take threats seriously and listen to your line staff. College doesn’t teach them everything and sometimes they need a reminder of that.

Well the vents here have turned up a few goodies for me. I will start taking a closer look. The thing I have been turning up a lot of contraband in light fixtures and outlets. I have started quite a collection of prison screw drivers about the only one I am missing is a star and two prong one. Chits and tweezers usually work for me to open them up. There has been a huge influx of contraband into the institution and what bothers me is the lack of administration activity to curb it. You would think if they believe we have dirty officers they would be doing more in the lines of staffing shake downs and getting the drug dogs in the institution.

If you have one, use a clean spoon to stir, scoop or prod for contraband inside the jar. If not squeezing the jar sometimes works, when you do this make sure to look at the bottom and sides to see if anything gets moved up against the plastic. Something else is weight, if you find a jar thats been used but weighs as much or more than a fresh one then you know something isn’t right. Or if you find a fresh jar that weighs more than it should. They reglue the paper seals sometimes just like boxes.

Something else I forgot to mention before, is the chargers. Doesn’t hurt to become familiar with what chargers allowed devices use. That way if you find a micro usb charger or what not and you know nothing on the permitted list uses that style it sets off a warning flag in your head. Usually they store the chargers seperate from the phones to help keep suspicion down for just that reason. Also if you have vents in your cells make sure they haven’t been tampered with. That was a major contraband hotspot for shanks and other serious items.

Any good tips for checking it other than dumping the jar into a plastic bag? I know I have learned over the years to crack open boxes and how to spot ones that have been reglued. I know a little about the peanut butter I have heard that squeezing it will make the stuff inside pop out. I have tried it but have not had any luck with contraband popping out.

Other than the means to do an electronic search the best thing is to remain aware of your surroundings and do good shakedowns. At my old max prison we caught one cause my partner overheard two inmates talking about a cell phone while he made a security round. Attention to small details can sometimes go along way. Someplace lots of officers dont check is inside peanut butter jars, and I don’t mean empty ones. Inmates sometimes wrap contraband in plastic and bury it underneath the peanut butter. Kind of a clever idea actually.

I know that there are smaller and smaller models. I have even seen a cell that is the size of an automatic car starter remote. There have even been watches that double as phones. The issue I am having is besides hearing a ring tone in the lock or high amounts of traffic to an area is there any way to really pick cell phones out. I know they make a device that can pick up on them when they are in use but I doubt the institution will pay for one. We have a few in the institution but so far we have yet to be able to turn them up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.